


Foxes and Bunnies

by mantledEidos



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, didn't mean to post this yet bear with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 03:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15452856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mantledEidos/pseuds/mantledEidos
Summary: Ty Lee is a happy go-lucky gymnast and Azula is a moody kickboxer. They've trained in the same university gymnasium for quite a while, but it takes the realization of a mutual friend in Mai for them to really begin toseeeach other. A friendship emerges-and the two find themselves, for the first time, with someone they feel they can trust with their trauma.





	Foxes and Bunnies

The first time Azula sees her in the gymnasium, she thinks that Ty Lee is willowy. It's not that she's particularly lithe. It's more in the way she moves—with this sort of bouncing grace, the movement of her core like heartwood bending, her hair whipping about like tendrils in the wind—yeah. She doesn't say anything to her that first day, doesn't speak, because for all her abrasive bluster, at heart Azula is the type who sees beauty in every stranger, and if she stopped to talk to every pretty person she saw she'd never accomplish anything.

Weeks pass without any further thought given to Ty Lee—well, no more than a few appreciative glances, anyways. Azula does have _taste_ after all. But when she sees Mai gazing at her with rapt attention while Bumi does his usual pre-rec safety lecture, she gets curious. Azula's always been rebuffed when she tries to initiate conversation during the rants, Mai saying something irritably about noise pollution. She figures that for Mai to tolerate it from someone else, they must be close, and yet as far as she knows they've never interacted before. Once Bumi's finished speaking, Azula heads straight for the bleachers and pulls out her phone. She notes idly that Zuko seems dissapointed she hasn't joined up with the red team for dodgeball. _Sorry, captain, but this conversation could lead to things infinitely more interesting than a game._

Azula began chatting with Mai.  
Azula: I haven't seen you talking to that girl before.  
Mai: …Really, Azula?  
Mai: She's been one of my closest friends since kindergarten. I assumed you weren't interacting with her because of interpersonal issues, but you… didn't even realize she existed, did you? I've always known you were somewhat oblivious sometimes, but this is on another level entirely.

Azula's face warms. _It's amazing how little she has to say to make me feel like an idiot._ She remembers, now, very vaguely, the barest impressions of scenes. Raven-haired, angular Mai whispering to a girl with dark brown hair and a face like a cherub. Mai laughing, an awkward sound that Azula nonetheless can't get enough of, and all because of _her_. She thinks that maybe she was jealous of her, once. It's hard to connect that little girl with the young woman she's been watching while stretching for the past few weeks.

Azula: I was _aware_ of her. I knew she _existed_.  
Azula: I'd never seen her with you. When we were children, yes, but I can hardly be blamed for failing to realize that pig-tailed fairy princess had become a gymnast while my head was turned.  
Mai: That's true. Ty Lee doesn't _look_ like a child any more, even if she shares your unfortunate habit of behaving like one.  
Azula: That aside, you still haven't explained why i've never seen you with her before, at least this year.  
Mai: We don't share any proper classes, remember? Ty Lee's also usually socializing with Professor Bumi on the stage during our recreational time. It's not as if you've had many opportunities to see us speaking, given the only place where you could is the one where she usually doesn't.   
Mai:…If you really want to know what she's like, you should talk to her yourself.  
Mai ceased chatting with Azula.


End file.
